Tag: American Football
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The Kinetic Heart: Braid, Polyvinyl Records, and the Midwestern Emo Blueprint
In the mid-1990s, while major labels were busy hunting for the next grunge act, Champaign-Urbana basements and chapels were giving birth to a mathematical, emotionally exposed revolution. From the angular, dual-vocal friction of Braid and the quiet genius of American Football to Matt and Danna Lunsford building Polyvinyl Record Co. out of an apartment, explore…
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Prairie Soundscapes: How Champaign-Urbana Built an Indie Rock Universe in the 1990s
Two hours south of Chicago, surrounded by flat miles of cornfields, Champaign-Urbana built a sonic empire in the 1990s. From the drop-D space-rock of Hum and sweaty nights at The Blind Pig to the rise of Polyvinyl Records and American Football, here is how a prairie enclave reshaped independent rock.